


Horribly Tacky

by supremesapphic (StormcageSweetie)



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Canon Lesbian Relationship, Dry Humping, F/F, Fluff, Mild Smut, Semi-Public Sex, and rindy is just a little dramatic, carol considers shopping for therese foreplay, therese is a bratty bottom, they're good parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 20:17:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20458853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormcageSweetie/pseuds/supremesapphic
Summary: At a backyard barbecue for one of Rindy's classmates, Carol shares her thoughts on the shirt Therese is wearing. Behind the pool shed.





	Horribly Tacky

The smells of summer in the suburbs lazed around her in the warm, dusky breeze like a foreign perfume. Grass cuttings dried by the sun slowly reviving with the evening dew. Hot dogs close to burning, nearly forgotten on the grill because of the offer of another cocktail. A thousand sickly sweet citronella candles burning around the perimeter of the yard. Chlorine from the pool. The heavy, woody smoke of the bonfire that Therese knew she’d smell in her hair for days if she didn’t wash it.   
If she were to try and make a set based on the scene, she felt it would fall flat without the element of scent. The experience would feel insincere.   
A sudden tug on the edge of her shorts reminded her she was actually part of it all, not just watching it happen.   
“Therese, Therese!” Rindy shouted, sugared up with juice and stained red all over by an ill fated cherry popsicle. “Can I please do a sparkler? Pretty please?”  
Therese laughed and looked across the yard to where the girl’s classmates were dashing about, swishing the illuminated sticks to make shapes in the dying light while the other parents looked on from around the fire.   
“Pleeeaaaase?” Rindy begged again, making it more than evident that she thought Therese was taking far too long in her consideration.   
“Isn’t that up to your mommy? What do you think she would say?” Therese countered, dropping down into a squat to match her eye level.   
Rindy huffed and threw up her arms in a wildly dramatic display of kindergarten incredulity. “Well I don’t know!”  
Just over the girl’s shoulder, Therese caught sight of Carol standing at the edge of the lawn.   
It was incredible, Therese thought, that for all she did to play her part and blend in when the occasion called for it, Carol always managed to stay so separate. Whether that was a choice Carol herself made or if it was the subtle voice of passive judgement from others, she had no clue. All she knew was that Carol never failed to take her breath away. And, as she lowered her gaze for a moment, that she needed to remember to mind herself better when they were out together. But could anyone fault her for staring when the woman she loved was so stunning?  
Therese glanced back up at Carol, this time catching her eye with a coy smile over the edge of her glass. The humidity of the day had done a number on her hair (despite her best efforts and Therese’s reassurances), but as the evening began to cool it began to look more like a golden halo catching the soft light of tiki torches than the frazzled, sweaty mess Therese had laughed at her for fretting about earlier in the car. Therese laughed again now as Carol nearly spilled her drink directly on Rindy’s head--the impatient child had run across the backyard in the length of their shared gaze and taken her by surprise.  
Carol too dropped down into that instinctual squat to listen to her daughter’s request. It always shocked Therese just how similar they looked. Most of the time she only saw a vague resemblance, but the two blondes conspiring in profile belonged unmistakably to each other--although Rindy’s frizzy hair certainly looked a lot less like a halo and a lot more like a tangled mess that Therese would have to find a way to drag a comb through before they put the girl to bed tonight. Over the tipsy buzz of the party she thought she could just make out the sound of “Well what do you think Therese would say?”   
The sight of Carol barely managing to hold back her laughter as Rindy threw her little head back with a frustrated groan confirmed her suspicions. Carol turned her smile back towards Therese, raising an eyebrow in silent inquiry. Therese answered with a thumbs up and a poorly restrained chuckle of her own, much to Rindy’s delight. The girl shot off across the lawn with blinding speed, shouting after her classmates, “They said yes! They said I can do one!”  
She watched as Rindy excitedly received an active sparkler, her eyes lit up both literally and figuratively by the dancing ball of sparks she now had the tremendous responsibility of wielding. Therese’s heart swelled a little. She suddenly understood how some women were so desperate to be mothers.  
Turning back towards Carol once more, she then felt something else entirely. Carol’s easy smile from before had been replaced with a pensive smirk, and from the way her eyes tracked dangerously slowly up and down Therese’s body, Therese was fairly sure she could hazard a guess as to what Carol was thinking about. Before she could say or do anything, respond at all, Carol set her drink down, winked at her, and set off across the lawn leaving Therese aroused and confused in equal measure--until she realized that Carol had disappeared behind the pool shed, of all places. A shiver of anticipation ran through her as she quickly checked around her to make sure nobody was watching and followed suite.  
The yard was enclosed in chain link fence, the same as every other in the development, but was bordered by woods on two sides. In the very back corner, ducking under a tree branch that had the audacity to grow over the metal boundary imposed by suburbia, she found Carol, leaning against the shed, smoking a cigarette, as casual as ever.  
“Hey stranger,” Carol said, tilting her head back just so to exhale before dropping her cigarette and crushing it into the dirt with her heel. “Come here often?”  
She greeted Therese with a crushing kiss, pulling her in by the collar of her brightly colored Hawaiian shirt to press her against the wall. A hand came up and tugged on her hair gently, enough to make her break away with a gasp.  
“Carol,” Therese uttered while trying to catch her breath, “What about the party?”  
“What about it? They won’t miss us.” Carol replied, closing in on Therese’s neck with a little nip she knew would make Therese groan. “Shh,” she added, pressing a teasing finger against the brunette’s lips before following her bite with sloppy kisses that only made it harder for her to stay quiet. “Wouldn’t want to draw attention to yourself now, would you?”  
Therese gripped Carol’s hips tightly, drawing her closer and digging her nails in in an attempt to regain composure--a battle she seemed to be rapidly losing each time Carol’s lips ventured lower. Carol undid the top few buttons of Therese’s shirt, biting and sucking at each centimeter of skin that she exposed.  
“But shouldn’t one of us be keeping an eye on Rindy? Sparklers can be dangerous.” Therese asked, stilling Carol with a hand on her cheek. Carol stared her down with those reassuring grey eyes, less playful this time.  
“Lucille’s eldest is with the kids, she’s fine.” She reassured, punctuating it with a quick kiss on Therese’s cheek. Her hands returned to the buttons on Therese’s shirt, quickly but carefully undoing them. “Now we’ve got to do something about this...” She said, regarding the atrocious print. “It’s horribly tacky.” Therese quirked an eyebrow at this.  
“Carol, you’re the one that bought it for me and asked me to wear it tonight.”  
“Funny how that worked out, isn’t it?” Carol said with a mischievous lilt. “Pity I picked such a cheap one, these damn buttons are going to rip off much sooner than I intended.”   
“I’m sorry, you intended--oh.”   
Therese found herself cut off--as Carol undid the final button, she wasted no time in bringing one hand up to knead at one of Therese’s breasts, relishing the moan she all but swallowed as she captured her mouth once more in a kiss. Carol turned equal attention to her other breast. Pressing a knee in between Therese’s legs, she teased and pinched at the nipples that were already so hard, straining against the thin fabric of her bra. Soon enough Therese found herself rutting against Carol’s leg, seeking out more pressure, more friction, more Carol--anything to chase the tension pooling low in her stomach, chasing the release she had only ever known and only ever wanted with Carol. Her hips rocked faster and faster. Her back arched, chest thrust forward and into dextrous hands. Her motions grew more frantic. More desperate. Shame be damned. The party be damned. Carol made her want, made her need so intensely.  
Carol stopped suddenly, stepping back to begin doing up the buttons of the offending shirt. The loss of contact left Therese feeling like she could cry, she was so dazed as she struggled to catch her breath that she couldn’t even form the words to ask Carol why.  
“Oh darling, can you blame me? You ended up looking so much cuter than I intended in that awful thing,” Carol explained as she smoothed out her own shirt and attempted for the hundredth time that day to fix her hair. “Especially all worked up like that.”  
Therese laughed in frustrated disbelief at the whole situation. She also noticed that Carol was more than a bit flushed herself. What exactly had just happened, and why had it ended? As the blonde turned to leave, Therese called out her name and grabbed her by the wrist. Carol looked her in the eyes, once more, intense now.  
“I’m going to go tell Rindy it’s time to go home.”  
Pressing one final kiss onto Therese’s lips, Carol gave her another hungry eyed once over and returned to the party.   
Therese sank back against the shed, her pulse still racing. She looked down at the Hawaiian shirt, wrinkled now, and began tucking it back into her shorts.   
She had to admit, it was a bit tacky.

Therese stood in the doorway of their bedroom, listening down the hall for the purr of Carol quietly wishing her daughter good night. She heard slow footsteps. The door latching. Seconds later, Carol met her face to face in the doorway. Therese opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by a single command:  
“Bed.”  
Therese took a shaky breath and obeyed while Carol shut the door and locked it in silence. She sat at the foot of the bed, watching Carol as she turned and came to stand in front of her. Therese tilted her head up, catching Carol in a kiss far more heated than before. Finally, they were truly alone. Breaking apart for air, Therese leaned back on her elbows to watch as Carol climbed onto the bed to straddle her. Her mind was swirling with so many thoughts about the woman on top of her (and especially about the things she’d like to do with her), but the most prominent thought was how lucky she was to see Carol like this. It was her privilege and hers alone. And then, a thought from earlier resurfaced.  
“Why exactly did you pick this shirt if you think it’s so tacky?” Therese taunted, even though she already knew damn well why. Carol secretly loved it when she was a bit of a brat. She’d never admit it, but Therese could tell. There was a subtle shift in the woman’s face whenever Therese acted like this, and to see that change while pinned beneath Carol’s thighs did unspeakable things to her.  
To answer, Carol decided on show over tell. Silently, with a look that was just daring Therese to speak another word if she knew what was good for her, Carol ran her hands up Therese’s front to grip her collar. With one sharp movement, she tore the shirt open, threads ripping and buttons flying, leaving Therese’s bare chest exposed. A smug grin grew over Therese’s face as Carol took her in.   
She had taken her bra off while waiting.  
Carol caught that smug look, too, and countered with a smirk of her own that told Therese just how quickly it would be wiped off her face. Carol pushed Therese down onto the bed possessively.

The shirt was soon forgotten altogether.


End file.
